Sleep Peacefully
by HotchnerJareau
Summary: Hotchner is faced with the daunting challenge of saying goodbye to his wife before the time's up and her life ends. Review!


**It's summer break and I am uploading various stories to feed my passion for writing! Here is just one of them. I hope you enjoy!**

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Aaron Hotchner couldn't have driven faster down the roads of Phoenix. Arizona. He'd just gotten the call about his wife. He pulls up at the location and jumps out of his SUV.

He finds the woman and falls down beside her. He knows she's still breathing; she has to be.

"JJ," he said, turning her head so that it was facing up. "Open your eyes," he coached, watching her eyelids for movement. He just needed her to be alive.

Spencer Reid rushed out of the burning building, panting. When he saw his best friend lying on the floor, he ran over to her. Aaron looked up from his wife.

"Are you okay?" Hotch asked.

Reid rubbed his ashen forehead. "I might be," he answered, his voice evidently tired. "Is she okay?" he followed up.

"Call 911," Aaron instructed, fumbling with the straps of Jennifer's FBI vest. He was shaking violently; the vest was posing a challenge for him.

He saw the blood coming from her chest and felt his heart skip a beat. He examined her chest for a few seconds before instinctively deciding to rip open her cream blouse. She'd bought it just a few days before and tried it on for him. He remarked that she looked like an angel in it. Seeing her small, fragile body covered in blood scared him.

Aaron began to press on JJ's chest. There wasn't much of her. She was very thin, very brittle. Hotch was losing his faith.

"Jen, stay with me," he said, counting as he furiously performed CPR on his wife. "You can't die!" He exclaimed desperately.

Spencer ran over to JJ and Hotch and fell to their level.

"They're on their way," he informed, moving around to the other side of JJ. Seeing how thin she was made him realize how little her body could really fight this seemingly endless battle.

Jennifer was breathing, she knew that much. However, she could feel her chest being pounded up and down. Her breaths were becoming shorter, her body had begun breathing slower as to save oxygen. Her mind was fuzzy. She couldn't tell her brain to open her eyes. She couldn't register what was going on, except for her husband's voice. The woman wanted so badly to grab onto his wrist and tell him that she was okay.

But she wasn't.

She was going to die and there was absolutely nothing anyone could do to give her a chance at life.

"Jen, the paramedics are here," Hotch said gently, applying pressure to the blonde's gunshot wound. "Hold on, baby, they're right here. You're gonna be okay."

JJ wanted to scream at him to shut up. He was wrong. She wasn't going to be okay.

She could faintly hear the paramedics working around her. These weren't her husband's hands.

While she wanted to concentrate on attempting to squeeze her husband's hand, but her mind kept jumping back to her children. She was going to leave 5 children without a mother. Her precious babies were at school, going on with their days. She craved a cuddle from them more than anything.

"Ma'am, you may feel a little pain," one medic, a male with a deep voice, began. "Ready? We're going to put you on your side. One, two, three."

JJ waited to feel pain, a pain that would jolt her entire body into ache and shock, but she didn't. She felt nothing whatsoever.

"You're doing so well," Hotch said, stroking the blonde's hair.

Jennifer couldn't cry. She wasn't able to. Could he be more wrong? He needed to stop telling her that it was going to be alright. He was lying to himself.

"We're losing her," one of the medics muttered, attempting to patch up JJ's wound.

JJ knew she was going to have to take her last breath. She was going to have to give up and let life continue on without her.

"Don't you dare give up on me!" Aaron yelled, squeezing her hand tightly.

JJ's hearing was never sharp, but she was sure she could hear the dread and fear in the medic's voice from above her. She tried to distance herself from it all, but she couldn't. She was dying.

At once, she felt her breathing slow and the shriek of a paramedic. She couldn't feel anything, not even the pain.

The paramedics furiously worked on JJ's chest. There was no luck.

"Jen, listen to me," Hotch pleaded, stroking her bloody hair back. "You can go, it's okay. The Grace and the boys are fine. There are better things on that side."

JJ knew her time would come within seconds, but she needed to hold on so that she could hear her dear husband's last words to her.

"I'll make sure Grace gets into the best dance school in the world…and I'll convince Jack and Henry to like the Redskins, and Ben will get into an amazing music school…and Tyler…I don't know about him yet, but when I do, I'll be sure to make it happen."

JJ let her life flash before her. How desperately she wanted to hold her sweet babies one last time. She wanted to marry her husband again, and experience everything with him just one last time.

"You're such an amazing mother," he remarked, watching as the paramedics began to pack up. They'd given up too. "I know you're not giving up, Jen, you're a fighter. I want you to know that…you've always belonged here. You will always have a place to call home, whether it be in my arms…or…or our home address…you will always belong."

"She's gone," the medic with the deep voice announced.

Hotch felt as JJ took her last breath. "All those nights…JJ, you told me you were just a sad story…this is only a sad chapter…you haven't ended yet."

"Sir," the medic said, before being pulled back by Spencer, who was reeling at the sight.

"And every time we say goodnight over the phone, you tell me to sleep peacefully…so, JJ…I love you," he breathed, feeling the lump in his throat grow larger. "Sleep peacefully."

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 **I hope you all enjoyed this little one shot! I am not sure whether or not I should continue it, so I'll let you decide.**

 **I have been trying to write a lot because I won't get much done at the end of the summer. I am going go Chicago, Houston, and Cancun! Plus, all through July, I am taking a civics and careers course. I will try to write as much as possible. REVIEW!**


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